The future is digital - inspiring the next generation on Girls in ICT Day

On April 28, the International Girls in ICT Day, high school girls were invited to the offices of EIT Digital in Stockholm and in Budapest to participate in the International Girls in ICT Day programme. The initiative aims at empowering and encouraging the next generation girls and young women to pursue their studies and build their careers in the field of ICT.

All over the world events are organised this day to raise awareness of women’s possibilities in the ICT field in terms of education, research, and industry as well, and introduces the advantages of the field through successful women players who are invited to the programmes as role models and share their learning journey and experiences.

In Budapest, EIT Digital hosted a joint event where the female staff of Budapest APG and the faculty of Informatics of ELTE presented their career choices and organised a three hour innovation game called “Be a start-upper for a day!”. The participants were engaged in a playful experience which showed them how to establish their first start-up, starting from a simple problem, finding a solution and develop the idea to a feasible start-up concept. The winner received a special award and in addition to this, everyone got a surprise gift and a pizza lunch.

In Stockholm, the Girls in ICT Day took place both at the Co-location Centre and the Mentorspace where the EIT Digital Master Students can learn and share digital skills and resources for prototyping. A team of female students organised the event and with great support from KTH Giants, Kista Mentorspace powered by Inicio and Google Girls the event was able to provide mentors, developer kits and goodie bags for all participants.

Providing the girls with a wide perspective of ICT as an enabling technology, Stockholm Node Director Göran Olofsson, welcomed the group and gave a brief presentation of EIT Digital. The Keynote speaker from Ericsson, software engineer Zandra Norman, followed by sharing her “tech journey” and had an interactive session about programming and possible career options in the field.

Prof. Mark Smith of the Department of Electronic Systems at KTH and Inicio, a mentoring and maker’s initiative founded by EIT Digital Master Students, encouraging students to grow their talent ran the workshop in the Mentorspace. The group assembled Google Android puzzle bots, tested sensors and connectors while brainstorming about what sensors to attach to their 'bots' and got a laser cutting demonstration on how to design electronic boards.

The events were highly appreciated and some more girls were truly inspired and excited to learn more. We look forward to further engagement with Women in Tech and Girls in ICT at EIT Digital!